How former BCCI chief N Srinivasan's parody account is turning into a Twitter marketer

The parody account is turning into a Twitter marketer, testing notions of who or what can be a brand endorser.Bharani Vaitheesvaran | ET Bureau | Updated: May 03, 2016, 13:51 IST

Amid a flurry of hard-hitting tweets about the Indian Premier League, cinema and politics, arrives a sober fitness tip from the popular parody handle subtly crafted to promote a brand and at the same time preserve its own character of an irreverent critic.

The tweets, laced sometimes with self-mocking humour but holding an uncanny connect with thousands of followers, is how @SriniMama16, a two-year-old parody account drawing on former BCCI chief N Srinivasan, is turning into a Twitter marketer and testing notions of who or what can be a brand endorser.

"Dei badavas, losing weight has got a lot to do with ur meal plan & not by only doing treadmill. Consult a good trainer at @Primal_Patterns," 'Srini Mama' urges his over 29,000 followers. It is met with rousing reception, cheeky quips, and some vow to check out the brand running four fitness centres in the city.

The handle soldiers on with a tweet suffixing trending hashtag #Magizhchi ­ an utterance by Rajnikanth for upcoming movie that is going viral ­ to leverage his fame for its promotions.

Since mid-April, holding the attention of about one lakh people of social media websites Twitter and Facebook, 'Srini Mama' has been sending out 140-character promotions in favour of Primal Patterns, a chain of gyms run by Shankar Basu, the official fitness trainer of the Indian cricket team.

Basu, who is also the strength and conditioning coach for Royal Challengers Bangalore, finds nothing off about promoting his brand through a parody account. In fact, he goes on to say a satirical voice, without a face, is working.

"Ever since I started this out over five years ago, the thinking was to keep off traditional advertisement channels. If we could create curiosity among the public for our fitness centres by adopting a rather unconventional marketing technique, this would be it," says Basu, who had met accidentally bumped into the administrator of Srini Mama at one of the training sessions at Primal Patterns and struck a chord.

The idea was a stab at earnest marketing through a faceless entertainer, believes the administrator of 'Srini Mama', ban king on an astute understanding of cricket which has garnered a fan following looking for serious commentary.

"When I initially started, it was more of a parody... now people see me as someone who knows his cricket... The transformation is akin to how people react when they see a debut batsman and how they see him two years down the line as an established player," said Srini Mama, revealing just as much identity as an "engineer good at academics, especially at math, and interests in chess, books, pets, the stock market, and food." 'Srini Mama', which has spawned parodies of itself, believes personality is a mere facade.

"Ultimately, what matters is not the face, but a trusted following, which I have without a face."

Asked for his impression on the parody, N Srinivasan declared at the outset that he was one of those who do not follow any tweet. "I am not a follower of the account you have mentioned."

However, Srinivasan added that: "My friends had made me aware of the account and on many occasions shared what the Tweets were. I found some of them to be quite apt."